[jonknee]

Because it features $10,000 per person deductibles (and then you still have to pay a portion up to $3k). If his kid breaks his leg riding his bike to school in the snow the family income could be cut nearly in half. Better than nothing, but definitely not great. That's a symptom of the US more than it is his lifestyle though.

[dnr]

No, the point is he has $600K+ in the bank as self-insurance. If he has to pay $10K in one year for medical expenses, he would do something like reduce the amount that his family draws by $1K a year for the next ten years, not cut the draw rate in half for one year. The self-insurance bet is that he won't have to do that more than once every ten years on average. Given their healthy lifestyle, he's probably going to win that bet.